The present invention relates to the transport of an object across a surface, like e.g. of a game piece across a game board.
The “classical” board game consists of a physical game plan (game board) and game pieces. The game pieces are put on the board and moved by the (human) players according to the game rules. A conventional computer has no access to such a classical game. It knows neither the position of the game pieces on the on the plan nor can it move the pieces.
In the adaption of a classical board game which is common today on a computer, game board and game pieces are set up “virtually” in the computer and displayed on the display of the computer. The computer knows the positions of all pieces on the virtual game plan. Movements of the game pieces only take place on this virtual game plan or program. The figures may only be moved in the narrow sense by “the computer”. Of course, the computer may perform the move based on an input by a person. By this it becomes possible for a computer and person to play “together” on the virtual game plan or program. This mechanism may also be used in connection with a network to let different people take part in the same game when they are located in different spatially separated locations.
As humans like to take “real” game pieces into their hands and move the same and often think the representation on a physical game board advantageous, it is, for example, also common with chess game computers that in the computer the game plan and pieces are set up and moved virtually, but that the person imitates the moves outside the computer on a real game board. Via a suitable interface man and computer here tell each other the moves which were taken, the person updates the position of the game pieces on the physical game board.
In particular with chess game computers it is also common to make position changes of the game pieces directly detectable for the computer via mechanical or magnetic switches. Here, a switch is positioned below a firmly given game field. If a game piece is moved on the field, the switching mechanism in the start field of the move and in the destination of the move is operated. From this information, the chess game computer may electronically detect and store the move. The information which game piece is concerned in this move, is not detected in today's systems. This information is generated by the computer itself by updating all game moves based on a defined position of origin. Game moves of the computer displayed by the computer generally have to be taken by a human on the physical board.
There are also solutions in which the computer directly moves the game piece via a robot grip arm, but this is a very cost and time consuming method and is thus hardly used. Apart from this, these solutions are typically specialized to a certain game, for example, chess. Further, these solutions suffer from restrictions. Thus, for example, several game pieces may not be moved simultaneously.
In DE102006009451.4 it was proposed for the localization of game pieces on the game board to use an RFID technology, wherein in this respect below the fields of the game board an RFID reader or a reader antenna is attached and the game piece is provided with an RFID transponder. If the game piece is put onto a field, the transponder is read out and identified by the reader below the game field. The game piece is then associated to the position of the reader or the reader coil.
According to the still unpublished DE 102008006043.7                the game plan is replaced by a lying computer display, e.g. in the form of an LCD, which may thus display any game plans.        each game piece is provided with an optical sensor on the bottom side, has an ID and is connected via a radio connection to the game computer.        
In the latter method, the game computer may automatically determine type and position of the game pieces located on the game board by a suitable combination of the information displayed on the game plan and remote readout of the sensor in the game piece. As this may be executed very accurately and fast, the game computer may track the position of the game pieces on the game board virtually continuously.
According to the above solution it is possible to build a universal computer adaption of a board game in which the computer represents a variable game plan on a screen acting as a game board and detects a position of a plurality of physical passive game pieces automatically. An automatic and efficient movement of these physical figures by the computer is not possible with little technical effort according to conventional technology. Only technically extensive special solutions with a computer grip arm or active self-moving game pieces are possible, which have many disadvantages, however.
It would be desirable, however, to make passive game pieces randomly distributed on a game board efficiently and automatically movable by a computer without having to use a robot grip arm or without requiring an active drive in the game pieces.
Problems of the above-described type of course also occur elsewhere and are not limited to game scenes. Apart from that, problems regarding the movement of the game pieces vary depending on the game. For example, a game with only one game piece presents less requirements regarding motion generation than a game with several game pieces, where one or a proper subset of the game pieces have to be moved relative to the other game pieces across the surface or the game board. Further, some game pieces are set up rotationally symmetrically, so that their rotational orientation relative to the surface normally is irrelevant, wherein this may be different with other game pieces and in some games the orientation of the game piece or its direction of view is important.